HaGyver and the Scumbags

Maybe deep down inside each of us is a desire to be a hero, to be the one that makes that split-second decision at just the right moment to save the world. Maybe that's why escape rooms are a thing. A real thing. Something that people pay real money for. I had no idea, but once I heard of it, I was kind of intrigued. That sounded just like something Joya would love. And her birthday was coming up…but how to create an escape room without access to Wal-Mart??

Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say, and good ideas from Pinterest don't hurt either. So we got

to work. Steve created the situation: Joya was to be HAGYVER, the best in the business, needed for her skills to track down three scumbags (Kaelyn "Sweet Pea" Hagemeyer, Lydia "The Pearl" Hagemeyer, and Carson "The Garcon" Hagemeyer) and thwart their next heist. Bios were written for the afore-mentioned scumbags, and riddles, clues, hidden numbers, and other mysterious elements were put into place.

Just a regular book on the outside...

After being briefed on the details of the case, HAGYVER was given an update: the intelligence community had reason to believe that the scumbags were planning their next target: the theft of the largest, uncut diamond in the world. Being a stellar sleuth, HAGYVER traced them to a small school room in an out-of-the-way town in West Africa. But on entering the room, she discovered an explosive device disguised as a printer, and the timer was ticking:  45 minutes to find the clues and solve the riddles, in order  to discover the passcode, which could unlock the smart phone and so disarm the bomb. Could she do it?

The passcode consisted of eight numbers, all of which could be found in the room, whether by solving a difficult equation, breathing on a mirror to reveal a number, reading the smudge on the window, or simply by uncovering one of the numbers themselves. But what order to put them in? And after finding the passcode, she still had to locate the key that would get her out of the room.

Did she do it? Did she find the code in time to save the world? Did she find the key and escape before it was too late? 

Well, let's just say that it was a close call, and she did find the key to escape.  More importantly, we made a memory, and this game started the wheels turning for how to create something like this again, in a different place, with different people…

So.  Who wants to be a hero?